1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for presenting data in an image of a book, and more particularly, to a book data service system in which the book data can be delivered by the broadcasting, only the necessary book data can be selectively stored, the service can be charged according to the accesses to the book data actually made, and the feedback from the user to a data center can be supported.
2. Description of the Background Art
In conjunction with the wide spread use of computers, various schemes for making it easier for a user to utilize the computer have been developed, including the so called Book-Metaphor which is an example of a system generally called electronic book in which the data are presented in an image of a book. The Book-Metaphor is a scheme for displaying the data on a computer in an image imitating a visual appearance of a usual book, in which various operation functions associated with the usual book such as jumping from the table of contents to a desired page, turning pages one by one, etc. are also supported. The software for this Book-Metaphor comprises book data produced in accordance with the prescribed format, and a program for the display of the book data along with the operation functions of a book.
An exemplary book data display image in the Book-Metaphor is shown in FIG. 1, which incorporates a number of navigation buttons for selectively activating the operation functions of a book supported in the Book-Metaphor arranged below the image of the book. Here, as summarized in FIG. 2, the navigation buttons include (a) a button for commanding a display of the front cover, (b) a button for commanding a display of the back cover, (c) a button for commanding a display of a next page (one page forward shift), (d) a button for commanding the display of a previous page (one page backward shift), (e) a button for commanding a continuously forward shift, (f) a button for commanding a continuously backward shift, (g) a button for commanding an attaching/removing of a slip, (h) a button for commanding a rest or ing of an original state be fore the previous operation (undo), and (i) a button for commanding an end of the use of the Book-Metaphor. It is noted that the types and shapes of the navigation buttons are not necessarily limited to those shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 and described here, but the buttons for shifting one page forward and backward are indispensable. In addition, the Book-Metaphor also incorporates a basic function for displaying a page having a table of contents on which any desired chapter or section can be specified, and displaying a page corresponding to the desired chapter or section specified.
In the exemplary display shown in FIG. 1, the image of the book incorporates a number of tags attached on a side edge of the book, which are shifted when the pages are shifted, and a number of slips attached on an upper edge of the book which can be attached or removed by the navigation button (g) mentioned above. When any of these tags or slips is specified, the page at which the specified tag or slip is attached is opened immediately.
Using this Book-Metaphor as described, it becomes possible for a user to read a series of data quickly in a manner similar to that of reading a usual book, in addition to the ordinary manners of utilizing the computer such as the processing of the entered data, the retrieval of a desired data from the database, etc. In particular, as the size and weight of the computer are progressively reduced, it is feasible for this Book-Metaphor to replace the conventional books in the future. In addition, in this Book-Metaphor, the manner of data access is so intuitive that practically anyone can understand it immediately, so that it is particularly suitable for a case requiring a continuous access to a series of very large data, in contrast to the conventional data access scheme in which it is necessary to narrow down the range of data to be displayed minutely by interactive operations, which is not necessarily intuitive for anyone.
Conventionally, the available means for entering the book data in such a Book-Metaphor system included the exchangeable memory medium such as floppy disks, CD-ROMs, and IC memory cards. Namely, the data provider must outputs the produced book data to the exchangeable medium once and then offers the exchangeable medium to the user, while the user must use the book data by displaying the stored book data using a book data display program, either directly from the exchangeable medium or by copying them to a large capacity file memory.
In such a conventional scheme using the exchangeable medium for entering the book data into the system, the medium storing the book data must be sold just as the books or video tapes are sold today. However, except for a case of buying the widely distributed materials such as magazines, the user still have to suffer from the tedious inconvenience of finding an appropriate bookstore first, and then finding a desired book in the bookstore. Also, the data provider may also suffer from the problems of the excessive returned copies or the shortage of the stock copies unless the sales of the book is properly judged beforehand. Moreover, as a physical medium for carrying the data is required for each copy, there is also a problem concerning the waste of resources.
As for the management of the electronic books, as the medium storing the data of the electronic book has conventionally been sold at the bookstore in a manner similar to the usual book, a large number of such media must be managed by the user in a manner similar to the usual books. In addition, even when the user terminal is equipped with a large capacity files capable of storing a plurality of electronic books, it has been difficult to manage a number of independently acquired book data efficiently. Thus, in the conventional electronic books, only the manner of data access and display on the computer have been changed, without changing the manner of providing data and managing data.
Also, when the book data of the electronic book contain the questionnaire or the advertisement for the mail-order, the feedback from the user has been relying on the mail or the telephone just as in a case of the usual books.
As such, compared with the conventional book in paper, the electronic book has advantages related to the possibility of multi-media expression, the powerful data retrieval operation, and the data storage requiring less storage area, but it is still unable to come even close to the conventional book in terms of the beauty of the visual appearance and the easiness of the visual comprehension. Consequently, in order to expect the full-scale spread of the electronic books, it appears necessary to take more advantages of their electronic nature in the aspects related to the manners of providing data, managing data, and supporting the user feedback.
On the other hand, there has been a system in which the database can be remotely inspected from a data center interactively, or a system which broadcasts the mainly text data repeatedly in short cycles, such that the user at the user terminal can selectively acquire and display the broadcasted data as if the user has interactively communicated with the data center. However, it has been impossible to make accesses to a variety of data freely in such a conventional system because of the severe conditions required for the communication cost and the amount of data that can be delivered within one cycle of the broadcast. In particular, it has been impossible in such a conventional data access scheme to make a continuous access to the very lengthy data without minutely specifying the range of the desired data, as required in dealing with the contents of the books.
As for the method of access to the data stored in the database, the conventionally available methods included a method using the command or the keyword entered by the user, and a method for selecting from a menu. However, in the method using the user""s command input, there is a need for the user to remember the special command, whereas in the method using the user""s keyword input, there is a problem that the user must enter the keyword as registered in the database itself. On the other hand, in the method for selecting from a menu, especially when the database is of a very large scale, the database has a complicated data structure which requires many hierarchical levels in menu such that the selection of a desired data becomes difficult, especially when the classification made used in the database differs from the classification made by the user. Moreover, in this method for selecting from a menu, the operation of the system is difficult such that a considerable amount of time is required in acquiring sufficient system operation skills.
As a solution for these problems, the aforementioned Book-Metaphor is also effective, because in the Book-Metaphor, in addition to the data retrieval based on the index or the list display, it is also possible to realize the data retrieval by browsing through the data content of the database in a manner of turning pages one by one, so that it becomes easier to comprehend the data structure and the operation method from the viewpoint of the data retrieval. In other words, it becomes possible to make a necessary access to the data even without knowing the specific keyword for each data.
Now, in conjunction with the development of the communication technology, the utilization of the database data through the communication network has become fairly common, and it is expected that the utilization of the database data is going to play an even more important role in our society in future. As the data plays an increasingly more important role, there arises a problem concerning the security of the data. Also, there is a need for a system which provides the data only to the selected users having specific rights assigned, in which the users making access to the data must be charged for the use of the database data. Conventionally, the charging for the utilization of the database data has been realized by carrying out the charging processing on the host computer side at the time of transmitting the data content of the requested data from the database.
Moreover, as a method for protecting the security of the data, several digital enciphering methods have been developed, and a conventional scheme for protecting the security of the data has been the uniform enciphering of all the data to be transmitted to the user side according a certain enciphering algorithm. However, in such a conventional scheme, because no clue for recognizing the data contents has been provided, in a case of the retrieval and display of the book data, there arises the problem that the selection of the necessary data cannot be made. For this reason, there has been proposed a scheme for deciphering only a part of the data content so as to provide a clue for the retrieval of the data contents.
However, when the deciphering of the enciphered data at the user terminal side is allowed freely, there arises the problem that the accurate charging processing for the utilization of the data becomes impossible. Moreover, when the enciphered data are transmitted for the purpose of the data retrieval, the data content to be accessed must be enciphered and transmitted once again at the host computer side after the selection of the desired data was made, so that the security of the data cannot be maintained and the amount of communication can also be increased as it is necessary to transmit the same data content twice.
Also, in a case of measuring the utilization state of the data delivered by the broadcasting, the conventionally employed method has been that in which a recording device given to a specific data user in advance is connected to a receiver device and the utilization state of this specific user is recorded. However, the data user can utilize the broadcasting even when the recording device is disconnected from the receiver device so that there is a possibility for the specific data user to disconnect the recording device, and therefore it has been impossible to make the accurate measurement of the utilization states of all the data users.
Also, in a case of utilizing the enciphered data delivered by the broadcasting, as the data cannot be utilized unless the data are deciphered, it has been necessary for the data user to connect a decoder for deciphering the enciphered data to the receiver device. However, conventionally, the decoder without the measurement function has been used for this purpose, so that at a time of charging the fee for utilization of the data to the data user, a particular data utilization fee independent of the amount of data utilization has been charged. From a point of view of the user, this implies that the same fee is charged even when the amount of data utilization is small so that the user may very well consider it as unfair, and this has been a reason for may potential users to refrain from subscribing to the use of the data delivered by the broadcasting.
On the other hand, conventionally, there has been a discussion of a data communication system for carrying out exchanges of the book data among a plurality of systems connected through a network, so as to make it possible for a variety of people to obtain various book data easily. In addition, there has also been a discussion of a manner of displaying the obtained book data to be as easily readable as possible.
However, as a huge number of data become obtainable by such a data communication system, it rather becomes difficult for each user to smoothly select and store the data which are actually required according to each user""s need.
Now, the usual book in paper often contains a questionnaire, a quiz, or a solicitation for the reader""s opinions or impressions, which requires the feedback from the user, and in such a case, the feedback from the reader to the publisher is normally made via mail or facsimile.
However, in a case of making the feedback to the publisher via mail or facsimile, the reader is required to carry out the work of mailing or facsimile transmitting, which has a qualitatively quite different nature from that of the work of reading, so that it can interrupt the flow of the reading work. Also, because of the reluctance to take the trouble of carrying out the work of qualitatively quite different nature on the user side, the sufficient amount of feedbacks cannot be collected from the users in many cases. From the point of view of the publisher, in a case of computer processing the information obtained from the user feedback, it requires a considerable time and labor to read the contents of the mail or facsimile and entering necessary information into a computer, and it in turn requires a considerable cost and time for this human labor.
On the other hand, there is the book in a form of a catalogue according to which the user can make an order for items or a reservation for an event. From the point of view of the publisher of this catalogue, there is the work of receiving the orders from the readers, and for the automation of such a work, there has been an order receiving system or a reservation accepting system in which the order data or the reservation data produced by an order slip production tool provided on a personal computer can be transmitted via a personal computer communication network to a center for receiving orders. Also, in the so called videotex, there is provided an order entry system in which the order data, reservation data, or answer data for questionnaire can be entered in a manner of interactive dialogue with the center.
FIG. 3A shows an example of an order receiving system using a personal computer, which comprises a host computer 1 equipped with a host terminal 2 located at a data center, which is connected with a user terminal provided by a personal computer 3 through a communication network 4. Here, the communication network 4 can be a transparent network such as the telephone network or ISDN, or a value added network. In a case of the value added network, it can either be a network in which the end-to-end dialogue is supported by the protocol conversion that can be carried out in real time at the network, or a network in which the data transmission and reception can be executed for the users by the network which has long time storage function.
FIG. 3B shows an operation sequence in a case of using either a transparent network or a value added network supporting the dialogue type communication. From the point of view of the dialogue between the terminals, there is no difference among these networks. In the operation sequence of FIG. 3B, in a case the user makes an order, the ordering software is activated at the user terminal personal computer 3, and the order slip is produced by the dialogue between the user and the personal computer 3. Then, the communication software is activated from the ordering software, and the communication path is set up with respect to the host computer 1 through the communication network 4. Here, the host computer 1 is in a state of waiting for communication all the times, and the communication path is set up in response to the call from the user terminal. When the communication path is set up, the order slip data are transmitted collectively, and the host computer 1 which receives the order slip data then carries out the admission processing while returning the admission notice to the user terminal. When there are other order slip data to be transmitted, the user terminal repeats the similar operations for the other order slip data. After the admission notices for all the order slip data are received, the communication path is leased and the communication software and the ordering software are terminated.
In this operation sequence, the contents of the admission processing and the admission notice depend on the required conditions of the system. For instance, it is possible to have a case of immediately making an inventory check and a notification, a case of making an inventory check later on and a notification is made later on by the transmission from the data center side, or a case in which the notification based on the inventory check is omitted as the stock is large enough to eliminate any possibility for the shortage of the stock. In a case of involving the lot drawing as in a case of the ticket reservation, the winners are going to be notified afterwards.
FIG. 4A shows an example of the order entry system in the videotex, in which the videotex terminal 5 replaces the personal computer 4 in FIG. 3A as the user terminal. The similar remarks as mentioned above for the network 4 in FIG. 3A also apply in this case. In the videotex of FIG. 4A, unlike the order receiving system of FIG. 3A, all the screen displays at the videotex terminal 5 are transmitted from the data center in response to the requests made from the videotex terminal 5. Therefore, the production of the order slip is also carried out by the dialogue with the data center.
FIG. 4B shows an operation sequence in this videotex of FIG. 4A, in which the videotex terminal 5 is activated first, and then the communication path is set up with respect to the host computer 1. In response, the initial display is transmitted from the host computer 1, and then using the ordering display transmitted from the host computer 1 in response to the ordering display retrieval request, the order data are entered and the accordingly updated ordering display is transmitted from the host computer 1. Then, the host computer 1 which receives the order data then carries out the admission processing while transmitting the admission notice. After the admission notice is received, the communication path is leased and the videotex terminal 5 is terminated.
By comparing these cases of FIG. 3B and FIG. 4B, the ordering software is required on the user terminal side in a case of FIG. 3B, but the appropriate ordering software may be different according to the conditions of the data center side for receiving the orders, so that the burden on the user can be heavy in a case of dealing with many order receivers. In addition, there is a need to modify the software at the user terminal side in a case of changing the ordering item or the ordering number. In contrast, in a case of FIG. 4B, the function required on the user terminal side is a simple screen display alone, so that the number of order receivers is of no concern as long as a standard protocol is used.
However, in this case, the communication path is maintained even during the production of the order slip, so that when the use of the communication network 4 costs the communication fee, the fee can be higher. Moreover, in a case of using the packet communication network, it can be inconvenient to have such a large amount of data transmission from the data center.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a book data service system in which the book data can be delivered by the broadcasting and managed by a centralized management, only the necessary book data can be selectively stored at each user terminal, the service can be charged according to the accesses to the book data actually made, and the feedback from the user to a data center can be made by simply entering the feedback content into the displayed book data.
More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide a book data service system in which the book data can be delivered to any user located at any place promptly and economically, without causing the waste of resources.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a book data service system in which the accurate charging for the use of the book data can be made without requiring the transmission of the same data content twice.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a book data service system capable of measuring the amount of utilization of the data delivered by the broadcasting by each user.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a book data service system in which the user is allowed to make a selection of a desired data efficiently according to the advertisement for the book data, so as to improve the ease in handling of the system using the data delivery by the broadcasting.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a book data service system in which the feedback to the data center side can be made without interrupting the book data reading operation of the user, the computer input operation for the collected feedback content is unnecessary at the data center side, and the flexible data input from the user terminal to the data center can be realized by requiring only a low communication cost to each user.
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a book data service system, comprising: at least one data center including: a data center computer for storing and managing book data; and broadcasting means for broadcasting the book data stored and managed by the data center computer according to a prescribed communication protocol using a synchronization control and an error correction scheme suitable for data delivery by broadcasting without confirmation from a receiving side; and a plurality of user terminals, each user terminal including: receiver means for receiving the book data broadcasted from the broadcasting means of the data center; user terminal computer for storing and managing the book data received by the receiver means; and display means for displaying the book data stored and managed by the user terminal computer.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for providing a book data service, comprising the steps of: storing and managing book data on a data center side by a data center computer of a data center; broadcasting the book data stored and managed by the data center computer according to a prescribed communication protocol using a synchronization control and an error correction scheme suitable for data delivery by broadcasting without confirmation from a receiving side; receiving the book data broadcasted from the data center at each user terminal; storing and managing the book data on a user terminal side by a user terminal computer of the user terminal; and displaying the book data stored and managed by the user terminal computer on a display in an image of a book.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.